Thanks, David. I really glad I lucked on to the EAA forum. Great informative posts and a great bunch of folks interested in sharing knowledge.
A couple of stylistic areas I like to see explored:
1.) Most of the kaskaras I saw in Kassala and in the Mahdi Museum in Omdurman had intergral "tassles" on the handles. Some of the photos shared on the forum have them while others do not. I wonder if tassles are time and or place of origin related. I have a silver mounted kaskara from Eastern Sudan supposedly circa 1915, plus two others with just leather from there as well. All three have tassles. I wonder if examples from Chad and Western Sudan are without.
2.) Some blades have talismic stamps like the Fly referenced in a post above. It would be neat to catalogue as many stamps as possible to assist in identification in time and place of origin is possible. It was told to me that the "Suliman" has five groves that extend down a third of the blade followed by a multi-rayed sun is the "Suliman Abu Shammish" (Father of the Sun). Also, the +O symbol is a Drum to build up courage while the Rampant Lion is a "Dukare Affringe" for brave men. Another one is a circle, sometimes two with a couple of small circles inside and a wiggly line inside. I don't recall what this one means, but it fairly common. I'm not aware of any special time or place criteria for these except I learned about them and saw samples in Kassala, Eastern Sudan in 1984. My inspection sample is rather limited. There must be several other examples in the Forum's collections or in reference books.
The beating of big tribal brass or copper?? drums was a big deal during the Mahdiya and any time tribal unity was needed. (Sort of like "calling out the clan" in Scottish history, I imagine. Many were buried after the British reconquest and their locations have been lost to the tribal groups and to history.
Take care,
Edster
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